Experience is the source of knowledge whether they're bad or good. It gives us confidence, courage, and strength. It is how life teaches us to love and forgive each other. In fact, experience is the worst teacher because it gives us the test before presenting the lesson.…
I learned a lesson all the way back in first grade, and that lesson has stuck with me ever since. I was coming in from recess, and I was talking to a friend of mine off to my left. Unfortunately, I was not watching where I was going. I kept barely taking glances of what was in front of me, and that was a huge mistake. Someone was running behind me, and wasn’t watching where they were going either. As I approached the building I heard yelling, but thought nothing of it. After all, recess had just finished, so obviously kids would be yelling, right? It turns out some kids had been playing tag, and decided to play until they got inside. One that was still running away, because God forbid he’d be “it,” was Nick.…
Further, regret often comes when looking back on opportunities not seized. There are many things I wish I would have done, or tried, or stuck with throughout life. As a child, I was involved in dance and piano. Upon reflection, if I could do it again, I would have stuck with these things even though a fifth grade version of me saw it as overwhelming and impossible. With years of weekly lessons, these traits would no longer be difficult.…
If I were given the opportunity to change something, I would definitely choose to go back and do over the years I was in high school. During my time there, it was more important for me to do things that were more fun than sitting in class and learning. I thought that being in school was only useful for socializing and passing time. I only went because my parents forced me and so I never put any real effort into it, my adult life suffered very much because of it. Not having a high school education set me back in a lot of ways, and it closed many potentially successful job opportunities. After finally realizing what I lost, I decided to come back to school. I finally see doors opening for me now, that could have been open for me since the beginning…
My educational goals can be said to be broken down into three parts that are really the means to my ends which is the fourth and most important goal. First, Im working on getting good grades in every class, I want to work on having and maintaining a high competitive GPA. My second goal is to get my Bachelors in Political Science in an ideal time frame of two more years. My third goal and one that is out of my hands, one may say, is getting a scholarship. I know there is a large amount of competitive students in the school, who are well deserving of scholarships but I need this scholarship to alleviate my parents from their stress and hard work to keep up with my payments. The last and really my main goal, where my eyes are set and where I,…
Christianity has always been apart of my life. My grandparents, parents and siblings are strong christians and always encouraged me to become one. When I was about four I was at a Christian camp that my family had always gone to and I decided then that I would give my life to Christ. But honestly at four years old I had only given my life to Christ because that's what everyone else did. Through my early teenage years I had lost my connection with Christ. There were so many difficult situations I was going through that Christ seemed so distant from me and what I needed. But turns out what I really needed was Christ. At the beginning of my sophomore year I began to go to Young Life, and what a difference Young Life made on my life. Young Life…
One time I took a leadership role that was the most relevant to me was when I was the leader in my robotics team in high school. I needed to take the role because everyone else seemed lost and I was the only one with previous robotics experience so I told everyone if they mid if I become the group leader and no one minded. One thing I learned about myself by being the leader is I am very good at giving people specific jobs and keeping everyone on task without them getting distracted. Another thing I learned about myself is i am a strict yet fun leader because I know when its time to stop playing around and get to…
My high school graduating class consisted of 66 students, so obviously everyone knew everyone and unfortunately everyone’s business. When I was a junior, a well-known and liked senior boy had a very public breakup with his girlfriend of 3 years. They had met as freshmen and were expected to marry after finishing school. The next day he drove his car at what police estimated in excess of 100 miles per hour into a concrete railroad bridge that crossed the main road out of town. After that, the bridge became known as Burkett’s bridge and I was never able to drive through it without getting a chill and goosebumps on my arms. It’s been over 40 years since high school, and it is amazing how often I still think of Bobby and his…
When I was in middle school I would always do my homework every day and keep my average high, but know i'm going down on my average as soon as I went into high school. When I started high school I made myself a promise. I told myself the same thing I told myself in middle school “I will do my best and do my homework all week”, but that didn't happen. It was already the last week of the first 9 weeks, and I was already failing my english and reading class. I was failing english because I didn't do the SAQ’s ( Short Answer Question) during class or for homework. I was failing my reading class because I didn't do my homework…
Ten years old is rough for kids, but what happened to me made those pre-teen years even worse. My parents had been divorced for two years when the unthinkable happened, my dad announced he was getting remarried. I was introduced to the woman named Melissa and her daughter Audrey, but I was unaware that the joining of the two families would impact my life forever. Though the road was not easy, Melissa helped me discover who I was meant to be, and the things she taught me affect me everyday.…
The biggest commitment that I have ever made so far was when I was in the high school, that commitment was challenging and difficult for me. It was graduating from the high school a high grades. Why it was challenging and difficult was because before that commitment I was the laziest person in my family, I didn't care about school and believed that getting high grades in school wouldn't change my life as long as I moved from level to the next but my intuition was wrong. My father tried to change my perspective, he had done many thing to me by enrolling me with a tutor, talking to my instructors in school to help me. However, all that things didn't work. He didn't see any change. As a result, he tried to convince me that affect our family’s…
My education will never be complete. This knowledge affords me the ability to grow each and every day. It teaches me to question the world and to learn from these questions. I learn through different lenses and circumstances I experience each day. At seventeen, I am nowhere near complete. I am young. I am flawed. I am naïve. What I have learned has led me down different paths in order to achieve different milestones on my own journey. I am strong. I am creative. I am poised...but most importantly I am learning. My education has allowed me to learn about myself, about others, and about the world. I am evolving through the educational process and through the effort of acquiring knowledge. I have no idea what I will learn tomorrow --some days…
Growing up I spent most of my childhood in Vietnam living an ordinary life. My parents were not risk-takers until they decided to quit their career as educators and move to the United States. Knowing that life in America will be challenging for immigrants, we mentally prepared ourselves to be fearless and get through every obstacle that is in our way. No matter how prepare we were, being a newcomer was frightful. When I first step foot on the land of promise, there was a mixed emotion suddenly rushed through me as a signal telling me life here will not be easy. We faced will endless obstacles and the language barrier is the most, the biggest challenge for us. Personally, I think learning a new language is difficult and requires a lot of hard…
Football has always been a big part of my life. As a young boy I would day dream of making insane touchdowns, making tackles that would leave man stuck in the ground, and even winning the heisman trophy. In 7th grade I had begged my mother endlessly to sign me up for pee wee football because she would always worry about the risks of football. After finally getting her to sign me up, we went straight into the season. I chose to play running back because as a 12-year-old I was remarkably fast having timed 5.3 in the 40 yard-dash. After a few weeks in the season we approached the playoffs and found out our opponent for the first round of the playoffs were the jaguars who were undefeated. Our team didn’t have the best chemistry on…
Time for school! Time for school! Are you excited? There was once a time when I was excited about going to school. I use to organize all of my school supplies trying to make sure I had everything that I needed. And I even use to pick out my own school clothes the night before, anxious to put them on. There were times when I thought that I’d oversleep, so I would sleep in my school clothes so that I could be already dressed and ready to go. My elementary school years were the most exciting for me though. I actually use to look forward to going to my school. Loughman Oaks Elementary was the school I attended and no one could tell me that it wasn’t the absolute best school in the world. Loughman Oaks use to have this ceremony called “Outdoor…